Charles Bush-Joseph, MD, is a professor at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and associate director of the Rush Orthopaedics Sports Medicine Fellowship Program.

Dr. Bush-Joseph has built a successful career as a sports medicine physician and serves as a team physician for the Chicago White Sox and assistant team physician for the Chicago Bulls. He spent time as president of the Major League Baseball Team Physicians Association and is currently on the MLB Medical Advisory Board.

He also maintains a busy practice, performing around 400 surgeries per year. Here, Dr. Bush-Joseph discusses the big challenges for orthopedic surgeons and where the field is headed in the future.

Question: What are the top two to three challenges you're facing heading into 2019?

Dr. Charles Bush-Joseph: The biggest challenges are:

A, vertical integration of care. The greater demands of bundled pricing require the orthopedic surgeon to monitor and control all elements of care.

B, finding the optimal model of growth. Orthopedic practices need to find the optimal size for market coverage and efficiency. We are evaluating whether partnerships/mergers, strategic investment, or simple organic growth is the best path forward for our group.

C, finding the best model of compensation/ownership to attract and retain the highest quality practitioners. As we drift away from individual clinical productivity as a method of driving revenue through the organization, the challenge of maintaining individual and group incentive is critical.

Q: What technology are you most excited about in the future?

CBJ: [What] we are excited about is finding new ways to interact with our patients. We continue to expand our online and telemedicine communication for ongoing care to allow our clinicians to see more new patients.

Q: What is your best opportunity for growth?

CBJ: We practice in the third largest market in the country, so we have great potential for growth locally and regionally. Executing on that model for growth is our biggest challenge.

For a deeper dive into the future of orthopedics, attend the Becker's 17th Annual Future of Spine + Spine, Orthopedic & Pain Management-Driven ASC in Chicago, June 13-5, 2019. Click here to learn more and register.

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